England beat rivals Australia by two runs in a Twenty20 thriller that went down to the final ball to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series on Friday.

Chasing 163 to win at the empty Rose Bowl, Australia collapsed from 124-1 after 14 overs to fall short on 160-6 in their first international cricket match in six months.

After losing four wickets for nine runs off 14 balls, the Australians needed 26 runs off the final three overs, 19 off the final two and then 15 off the last, bowled by Tom Curran.

Marcus Stoinis hit a six off the second ball to leave the tourists needing nine runs off four, but couldn’t hit another boundary.

Australia were handed a brilliant start to the chase as Aaron Finch (46) and David Warner (58) shared a 98-run opening stand. Things started going downhill, though, after the loss of Steve Smith for 18 to make it 124-2 and Glenn Maxwell four balls later for 1, both falling to Adil Rashid.

England eked out a total of 162-7 mainly thanks to Dawid Malan (66) and Jos Buttler (44). No other player reached double-figures, with Kane Richardson having figures of 2-13 and Maxwell getting 2-14.

The top-ranked Australians hadn’t played since mid-March when their scheduled ODI series against New Zealand was abandoned due to the coronavirus pandemic.

England can wrap up the series by winning the second match back at the Rose Bowl on Sunday.